Archive

(5/23/2019) Headlines & More: Week Ending May 23, 2019[My vote for top story of the past week is Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) coming out as the first GOP U.S. legislator to call for the beginning of presidential impeachment hearings. Amash is known as a libertarian Republican of integrity. He’s ultra-conservative (a founding member of the Freedom Caucus) but occasionally has bucked his party on principle. He also loves keeping his constituents apprised of his decision-making reasoning on social media, as illustrated by his nine-part, comprehensive tweet May 18 explaining why impeachment hearings should proceed.]

(5/16/2019) Mentally Exhausted[I’m mentally exhausted this week. I try to come up with an angle for each article to illustrate the extent of looming danger to the rule of law, Constitution, and American psyche. But the doomsday train keeps rolling, with every new presidential offense being lost in the sea of Trumpian corruption, criminality, and amorality. Republicans, as a once-Grand Old Party, have succumbed to group-thinking mob mentality — willingly sacrificing their reputations for a man they once loathed. They blindly buttress the president no matter his crime nor the continuing deterioration of their souls. If they fall out of rhythm, even once, from their lockstepped support of Trump policies and boorish behavior, they risk being primary-ed by his rabid, 90%-of-GOP base of supporters.]

(5/9/2019) What if It’s Simpler Than We Thought?[What if Donald Trump — now known to be a billion-dollar loser, bush-league businessman, and bogus deal-maker — has been kissing Vladimir Putin’s a** simply to protect and enhance his chances for future money-making schemes in Russia. We know that no Russian business venture has a prayer without Putin’s blessing. Imagine ex-President Trump sitting across from the dictator being able to say, “Remember that Ukraine policy I fixed for you? Remember those sanctions I lifted? I’ll make a billion dollars and you get 10%.” Then Putin says, “Remember that Golden Showers video? Remember how I kept my mouth shut when you said you had no business in Russia? You’ll give me 50% and you’ll like it.”]

(5/2/2019) Absolutely Nothing Matters Anymore?[Attorney General William Barr lied in his April 9, April 10, and May 1 appearances before Congress. There is no way around this. Have we really gotten to the point at which Saturday Night Live’s Michael Che — playing NBC News anchor Lester Holt during the infamous Donald Trump interview, upon hearing Trump admit he fired FBI Director James Comey because of the Russia investigation — exclaimed the following: “Wait! So did I get him? Is it all over?” Then Holt (Che) repeats the producer’s response coming through his earpiece: “Wait, no, I didn’t? Nothing matters? Absolutely nothing matters anymore?”]

(4/25/2019) Mueller Report: Highlights and Lowlifes[President Trump has been vindicated: The special counsel’s team was unable to procure a copy of the infamous 2013 Moscow Ritz-Carlton “Golden Showers” video allegedly featuring Donald watching Russian prostitutes urinate on each other while cavorting on the presidential suite bed that Barack and Michelle Obama once slept in. Other than that, Donald is guilty as hell of a slew of really bad, much of it illegal, stuff. Trump World would like you to view the report’s release as the end. It is the beginning. There will be congressional investigations of criminal and otherwise unethical presidential activities. There also will be determinations that we expect more from a president than simply avoiding provable-beyond-a-reasonable-doubt criminal culpability.]

(4/18/2019) Swedish Penis Enlargers, Trump, WikiLeaks, and the Mueller Report[When Donald Trump said WikiLeaks is “not my deal in life,” every thinking person who consumes news in America immediately thought of Mike Myers’ spy character in his famous (and cerebral) cinematic trilogy about hapless, sex-crazed, James-Bond-caricaturizing Austin Powers. We all instantly flashed to the scene in “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” during which Powers had just been unfrozen by Britain’s intelligence agency after several decades of frigid suspended animation. Austin and the beautiful Vanessa were reclaiming Austin’s possessions, in repository for 30 years, from the clerk reading off the inventory of belongings. [QUARTERMASTER CLERK]: “One Swedish-made penis enlarger.” [AUSTIN POWERS]: “I don’t even know what this is! This sort of thing ain’t my bag, baby.”]

(4/11/2019) Inextinguishable Stench of Association With Donald Trump[DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had been in hot water with Trump last year but appeared to have saved her job. Nielsen is an immigration hard-liner, but she drew her tough policy line at illegality. Trump decided she had to go. She’ll forever be tainted by association with The Donald. Another administration official hurtling headlong toward perennial Trump-stink is the new attorney general, William Barr. Barr also served as AG during the George H. W. Bush administration. Trump liked that Barr facilitated several Bush pardons for important Iran-Contra scandal players. These pardons were credited with sparing then-President Bush from any public culpability for his involvement. Some might call this dénouement a cover-up. Trump also liked that Barr said a president cannot obstruct justice. So Trump hired him.]

(4/4/2019) Adam Schiff Says It All[“You might say that’s all OK. You might say that’s just what you need to do to win. But I don’t think it’s OK. I think it’s immoral, I think it’s unethical, I think it’s unpatriotic, and, yes, I think it’s corrupt, and evidence of collusion. … I don’t think it’s OK that [President Trump] advocated a new and more favorable policy toward the Russians, even as he was seeking the Kremlin’s help to make money. … I do not think that conduct, criminal or not, is OK. And the day we do think that’s OK is the day we will look back and say, that is the day America lost its way.” (— Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.)]

(3/28/2019) Trump-Russia Obfuscation Continues[If you relish Trump being cleared of criminal conspiracy, and you have any claim to critical thinking, you also must accept that he’s been lying to you about a national security issue of tectonic significance, to protect his ego and future business interests. He’s been doing Putin’s bidding. Though not technically a crime, it is certainly a betrayal to the country — and to you, his supporters. Sure, you wanted a president who would come in, blow up the place, and be rude to his opponents. Did you want someone who literally would jeopardize our nation’s safety and democracy for selfish financial gain? Trump supporters, I hereby give you permission to admit your mistake of ever backing him. I will not tweet-trash you. I will not give you a derogatory adolescent nickname. I will not sue you. And I will not say, “I told you so.” I will revere you.]

(3/21/2019) New Zealand Needed Humanity — Trump Has None to Give[Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the American president that if he wanted to best support New Zealand during this time of tragedy, she urged him to express “sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.” In a classic Trumpian say-what-you-gotta-say-in-the-moment response, to get the prime minister off the phone, Donald agreed to do it. But I guess he forgot about his throwaway line, “Whatever they need. We will be there.” Trump couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even fake it. New Zealand needed humanity. Donald has none to give.]

(3/14/2019) NY Indicts Manafort on 16 Counts — Start Spreadin’ the News[“He’s lived an otherwise blameless life” should be memorialized on His Honor’s tombstone. Virginia Judge T. S. Ellis forever will be remembered in infamy for that sentiment, juxtaposed with Paul Manafort’s long career of traitorous work for dictators, serial tax evasion, and abundant, massive fraud. Legal experts were appalled by the light 47 months sentence, some calling it “absurdly low.” Sentencing guidelines called for between 19 ½ and 24 years. Many considered this to be a shocking bow to rich-white-guy privilege by rich-white-guy Judge Ellis. Then D.C. Judge Jackson spoke. Then New York state roared.]

(3/7/2019) Who Among Us Hasn’t Fudged a Few Million Dollars on Their Taxes?[Donald Trump would like to convince you that these crimes weren’t that criminal. For starters, Donald says the Manafort crime is 12 years old. He lied about that, but for argument’s sake, let’s assume he’s right. In his mind, there is an inherent statute of limitations if one gets away with it for a period of time, say, a few years. The law says the offense was within the time limit for prosecution. But if you’re from Trump’s world, hey, if you got away with it for this long, you should be home free.]

(2/28/2019) Second Michael Cohen Congressional Appearance[Michael Cohen has nothing to gain and everything to lose by misleading Congress again, now that he is beginning his long road to redemption. First, between Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney’s office, they already know virtually everything to which Michael will testify. If he lies again, they will nail him. Second, while Cohen still has a chance to mitigate his sentence in return for further cooperation with the SDNY, his testimony before Congress has no chance of helping in this regard.]

(2/21/2019) What if Even a Fraction of all This Is True?[It is maddening that Republicans don’t have enough humanity to wonder for a moment, “What if even a fraction of all this is true?” Clearly, they all would be busting veins in their necks if these same reports were about a President Hillary Clinton. But put aside their suffocating partisanship and Himalayan hypocrisy: Don’t they care enough about their country and their families at least to consider the overwhelming mass of evidence that says their president might have betrayed our country?]

(2/14/2019) (Climate Change) Denial Is Not a (Dried-Up) River in Egypt[The self-serving myopia is staggering. These old farts won’t be around to experience the ultimate damage to Earth, so they simply don’t care about the future. Donald has very young grandchildren, and he is unconcerned that they will have to wear hazmat suits to go to the beach when they grow up. They will have to wear scuba tanks to breath outside their homes — their oceanfront mansions in Kentucky and Ohio.]

(2/7/2019) Trump SOTU Is So Bad[In the President Donald J. Trump era, the State of the Union address has become almost meaningless, except to examine stakeholders’ reactions — and to see if Donald’s speech-reading skills have improved. He offers no policy specifics. He offers only trifling, hypocritical sentiments of compromise. Words from the mouth of Trump have lost all credibility, especially Teleprompter Trump.]

(1/31/2019) There IS Education in the Second Kick of a Kentucky Mule[Mitch McConnell is big on that old “second kick of a mule” Kentucky saying. I’m guessing we could find him invoking it even before 2013. With his leadership gone AWOL over the past month’s government shutdown, he has become famous (infamous?) for it. But has he really learned from it? Does he really know what it means? Mitch’s latest publicly acknowledged mule kick came from an orange-haired ass in the White House.]

(1/24/2019) Man-Child Amendment[The Founding Fathers did not plan for a man-child president with a complete lack of empathy, propped up by a supporting political party of invertebrate, hypocritical sycophants. Oh, but the president has backbone. This man-child has the ability to stand up, hurl grade-school insults, and insist upon getting his own narcissistic way or he’ll blow up government, damn the rest of the country. A man with strong backbone but no empathy, foresight, or morality, however, is one dangerous animal, the likes of which we’ve never seen before (to use one of The Donald’s favorite lame superlatives).]

(1/17/2019) GOP Is a POLINO (“poe-LIE-no”): Party of Lincoln in Name Only[Kevin McCarthy averred Rep. Steve King’s latest racist remarks are “not the party of Lincoln.” The implication is, other than King, today’s Republican Party is Lincoln’s party. The GOP loves to say this. But that is hogwash, to use the “language of Lincoln.” If Honest Abe were here today, he would be chastising his former party. I say “former” because if he were here today, he would have withdrawn from the GOP in an Illinois second. Today’s Republican values are antithetical to Abraham Lincoln’s values.)]

(1/10/2019) Ballad of Manafort and Veselnitskaya[The Manafort-Kilimnik connection clearly constitutes collusion. The Don Jr.-Veselnitskaya connection clearly constitutes collusion. Were the actions of Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. part of an illegal conspiracy to steal the 2016 presidential election? Did Donald Sr. know about it? Did he sell out America to enrich himself? Does a large brown furry mammal belonging to the family Ursidae (of the order Carnivora) defecate in a woodland area supporting an understory of shrubs, herbs, or grasses? (PS: Was there something about an Oval Office address this week? I got distracted.)]

(1/3/2019) President Trump: Leading “With His” Behind[This week, three enlightening articles were published about President Trump. All three sets of authors purport to know the real Donald. Do the profiles give us insight to the man and his policies? Well, two out of three ain’t bad. “The Apprentice” producers give us Trump history. Mitt Romney gives us his opinion of the president’s character. And Jerry Falwell Jr. shows us what Jerry Falwell Jr. is made of: amoral mush.]

(12/27/2018) Jeb, Donald, and Competing Predictions[Trump’s prescient prediction of presidential investigations was otherworldly. He was right about “Director Comey and the great, great special agents … will be able to collect more than enough evidence”; he nailed his forecast of “efforts to disparage them and to discredit them.” The candidate told us “we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial.” Except the subject of his prophesizing turned out not to be Hillary. Only Donald could subconsciously project his own presidential future. That’s because only Donald knew, at that time, that his life philosophy comprises inherent criminal and amoral behavior. Priceless.]

(12/20/2018) Wheels Are Falling Off[There are ongoing criminal investigations into every major component of Donald Trump’s universe, including the campaign, transition, inaugural committee, presidential administration, Trump Foundation, and Trump Organization. There are seven different prosecution teams pursuing 17 separate court cases. It is breathtaking. This week, the metaphor of “the wheels have fallen off” the Trump presidency has been cited ubiquitously, and not only by Democrats.]

(12/13/2018) Wile E. Coyote Has Overshot the Cliff and Road Runner Has Dropped the Anvil on His Head[Trump appointed AG Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. Sessions appointed Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the SDNY. Berman is a former law partner of Rudolph Giuliani, a prime-time Trump sycophant. Rosenstein appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller, George W. Bush’s long-time FBI director, after President Trump fired then-FBI director James Comey. All these men are lifelong Republicans. Trump could not have ensured more fairness to him had he installed Tiffany and Eric at the Justice Department.]

(12/6/2018) Festival of Contrast[President Donald Trump has become such an ethical and moral wrecking ball on the presidency that any celebration of any American political leader’s life — no matter that leader’s political persuasion nor the ordinariness of that leader’s civic contributions — becomes a singing baritone sax at a funeral home viewing, blasting the contrast to our current White House occupant. Without meaning to be, the funeral of George H. W. Bush was a festival of contrast.]

(11/29/2018) Hang in There[What did President Trump call the torture, murder, and dismemberment of a dissident critical reporter by the government at the receiving end of the criticism? A good start! The president lets the Saudi royal family get away with the blatant killing of a journalist so as not to jeopardize his history of huge business deals and colossal profits garnered from that country. One more outrage in the Trump era. Who cares?]

(11/22/2018) Worst “Baby Christian” Ever[Trump let the Saudis get away with murder — literally. Any evangelicals who ever swallowed the “baby Christian” crap in 2016 must now admit that Trump is the worst baby Christian since Paul’s brilliant marketing campaign saved a dying religion at the end of the first century. In 2016, 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump; 19 percent did not. The 19 percent were not manipulated by the epic hypocritical campaign of evangelical leaders. It’s like the authoritarian Christian patriarch who goes to Bible college and learns to preach, only to be ridiculed behind his back by family who clearly see the colossal hypocrisy — the guy does not live Christian values at home, and the household is miserable. Nineteen percent of the American white evangelical family was not fooled. But they — like the rest of us — remain miserable under Trump.]

(11/15/2018) Like an Episode of “Maury,” Without the Paternity Test[This title would be one thing if it were describing your average American dysfunctional family in a particularly tumultuous period. For dark, mysterious reasons, many people enjoy the vicarious thrill of watching others’ relationship problems explode on national television while being refereed by Maury Povich or Jerry Springer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (— thanks to that other Jerry: Seinfeld). But the quote above is describing the White House.]

(11/8/2018) Quintessential A**hole[Donald is engaging in sore loser syndrome — as he always does when he loses. He actually berated certain losing Republican House candidates who put distance between themselves and the White House. Every other president understood their support was weak in certain geographic areas and that his party’s candidates had to adjust their strategy accordingly. No matter — the losing Republicans did not fully “embrace” Trump and Trumpism; therefore, they are dead to him.]

(11/1/2018) Donald: Mendacious Monger of Fear[It’s election crunch time, and Donald is desperate. A House controlled by Democrats will end his reign and worse. He has fabricated more misinformation and mongered more fear than ever before. He appears to have reached new ethical and moral lows. But we know it can always get worse. With Donald Trump, there is no bottom.]

(10/25/2018) Jesus’ Abbreviated Principles — 7 Do’s and 13 Don’ts[In the last few weeks before the 2018 midterm elections, Donald Trump has focused his evil rhetorical powers to promote fear, hate, and division like never before. This is his last stand and he knows it. Even if a GOP-controlled Senate refuses to remove him from office after an impeachment trial next year, Trump will be forced to resign in the face of massive corruption come to light.]

(10/18/2018) Cry, Baby, Cry![On Sunday, President Trump submitted to a real interview with a real journalist, Lesley Stahl of CBS’ 60 Minutes. He felt compelled twice to declare, “I’m not a baby.” Donald spent the rest of the interview demonstrating that he is a baby. To cover for the Saudis, Donald is using the Kavanaugh defense: Something terrible obviously happened, but the evidence is pointing to the wrong party.]

(8/9/2018) Lies, Damn Lies, and Swamp Metaphors[“Drain the swamp” was always an empty slogan that meant nothing — and I mean NOTHING — to Donald Trump. It was a phony sales pitch, a focus-group-tested bald-faced lie. And his supporters bought it hook, line, and metaphorical sinker.]

(8/2/2018) Wrap-It-Up Republicans[The key question to these Republican obstructers is this: Why would you want to stop an investigation that is 1) attempting to ascertain how our 2016 presidential election was attacked and by whom, and 2) producing serious evidence of corruption within our own government?]

(7/26/2018) President Trump Is an Addict[Ultimately, one day Donald wakes up in the White House, with his drug paraphernalia of choice — a smartphone and a Twitter app — and the entire world as his audience. Like the drug-addled guitar player whose band gets a hit and suddenly finds himself swimming in riches and rock stardom, Donald, the hopeless mendacity addict, has begun to lose all control.]

(7/19/2018) Hinky in Helsinki[“My people came to me — (DNI) Dan Coats came to me and some others — and they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin — he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be [Russia].” (— Donald Trump) ]

(7/12/2018) Trump’s Obsequious Factotums (— thanks Jake Tapper)[In what sane, democratic universe do U.S. SCOTUS nominees, Cabinet secretaries, and most other administration luminaries feel continuously compelled to heap artificial fawning praise on their chief executive? And what competent, confident democratic leader requires this of his people?]

(7/5/2018) “You Can’t Make a Difference” — Don’t Believe It[“Where was the point when it was too late? Where was the point where if we’d all just risen up, if we’d just done something?” (— Michael Moore, predicting future questions about the results of current presidential crimes)]

(6/28/2018) Man’s Inhumanity to Man[In Trump’s America, we’re living the inhumanity again. Where are the Mr. Eggens — the junior high school teachers — to prepare students to think critically as adults? Where is the soul of the GOP? Supreme Court “swing-vote” Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement. If ever there were a time for critically thoughtful, caring patriots to mobilize and stand up to an autocratic, plutocratic leader and his invertebrate, cowering congressional majority, it is now.]

(6/21/2018) Trump’s Zero Tolerance Exposes Zero Humanity[Steve Schmidt: “Today I renounce my [30-year] membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump. It is corrupt, indecent, and immoral. This [zero-tolerance] child separation policy is connected to the worst abuses of humanity in our history.”]

(6/7/2018) War of the Words (and the Worlds)[Think of the Trump administration and Steven Spielberg’s 2005 movie War of the Worlds. A massive campaign of galactic devastation carried out by foreign evildoers overwhelms the United States and Earth. The same thing happens in Spielberg’s movie.]

(5/31/2018) Racism-Lite Is ALSO Wrong[Roseanne Barr and others worked their way up to blatant racism after becoming emboldened by lack of pushback along the way. Each time nonracists didn’t speak up, bigots assumed the nonracists agreed with them, or at least accepted their behavior. Meanwhile, both groups’ kids were absorbing these attitudes.]

(5/24/2018) Galactic Mick Mulvaney Hypocrisy[Mr. Mulvaney, here is a brief list of the legislative initiatives Republicans were for before they were against. Apparently, it was simple coincidence that they turned against these policies only after President Barack Obama began supporting them.]

(5/17/2018) MAGA Good Ol’ Boys: “Wait — You mean we like Jews now!?”[Trump moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem to promote peace. “Because nothing says ‘peace’ like 58 Palestinians killed, 2,700 wounded, renewed hostilities between Iran and Israel, the entire region aflame, and U.S. allies reeling” (— Dana Milbank).]

(5/10/2018) Another Republican (Near) Deathbed Apology[Why does it take imminent mortality for GOP politicos to clarify their values and make amends? John McCain has put a toe in the water, but apparently he is not yet sick enough to admit that choosing the galactically inept Sarah Palin as his running mate was a dangerous mistake.]

(5/3/2018) Chronic Stress and the Love of a Good Dog[In the Trump era, all of us who care about good government and the state of American democracy are living with health-damaging chronic stress. One antidote is a good dog, the greatest stress-reliever known to humankind.]

(4/19/2018) Don’t Forget, Nikki: He’s Incompetent, Too[Yes, there is an ever-cresting tsunami of presidential corruption news. But this week, in light of Ambassador Nikki Haley’s run-in with presidential vacuity, I want to get back to basics: Donald Trump is incompetent.]

(4/5/2018) Outrage Fatigue and Trump’s Race to the Bottom[There are two new resources to refresh your memory when the time comes: Amy Siskind’s book The List: A Week-by-Week Reckoning of Trump’s First Year (3/27/18); and New York magazine’s “501 Days in Swampland” (4/1/18), a list of White House corruption.]

(3/8/2018) “DON’T CONGRATULATE, Bro!”[The phrase “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” is destined to take its place among other Top 10 American pop cultural catchphrases such as “Don’t tase me, Bro!” and “You know, I’m, like, a smart person.”]

(3/8/2018) Dear Rex, It’s Not You, It’s Me[Donald tweet-fired his secretary of state. Now it’s reported Mueller has subpoenaed Russia-related documents from Trump Tower. Karma is a bitch — and then your porn star mistress wants to return the hush money and cancel the NDA.]

(3/8/2018) Trumpism Lovers, Trump Haters[There are Republicans who love Trump’s policies but hate the man. They hope Trumpism will live on after Donald is ousted. Sorry, guys. Trumpism dies without the Trump con — which is almost dead.]

(3/1/2018) Security Clearances and Armed Teachers[With this gun-control satire, I do not disrespect shooting victims or their families. I revere them. My sardonic disrespect is aimed squarely at President Trump who stupidly, selfishly promotes only gun-violence remedies the NRA can stomach.]

(2/22/2018) “This Is Code Red”[I will take no joy in the fact that we came to this point. But I will celebrate Donald’s downfall as evidence that our government could withstand the pernicious forces of Trumpism and complicit Republicans.]

(2/15/2018) Constitutional Stress Test[Don’t let the intricacies of the Trump-Russia affair make your eyes glaze over; keep an open mind and when the time is right, pay attention — your country depends on it]

(2/8/2018) President Lies Again; Also, Dog Bites Man[It’s a testament to the president that journalists and news organizations of utmost integrity finally decided they had no choice but to say it: Donald J. Trump is a liar and a racist]

(2/1/2018) Paul Ryan Wants to “Cleanse” the FBI[Paul Ryan and John Kelly have squandered their last remaining traces of integrity by supporting House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes in shilling for an immoral, unethical, criminal president]